Court Reduces 'Shocking' File Sharing Award

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Court Reduces 'Shocking' File Sharing Award

A federal judge on Friday reduced a $1.92 million file sharing verdict to $54,000 after concluding the award for infringing 24 songs was "shocking."

A federal jury in June found Jammie Thomas-Rasset liable in what at the time was the nation’s only Recording Industry Association of America file sharing case against an individual to go to trial. The Minnesota federal jury dinged her $1.92 million for infringing 24 songs. She asked the judge to set aside or reduce that $80,000 per song in damages.

U.S. District Judge Michael Davis agreed on Friday, and said the RIAA may have a retrial if it does not accept his ruling.

"The need for deterrence cannot justify a $2 million verdict for stealing and illegally distributing 24 songs for the sole purpose of obtaining free music," Davis wrote. "Moreover, although plaintiffs were not required to prove their actual damages, statutory damages must bear some relation to actual damages."

The decision came days after the Obama administration supported $675,000 in damages a jury levied against a Boston file sharer in the nation's second and only other file sharing case against an individual to go to trial. Among other things, the administration said the large July award would "deter the millions of users of new media from infringing copyrights in an environment where many violators believe they will go unnoticed."

The new damages amount to three times the minimum of $750 damages the Copyright Act allows. The maximum is $150,000 per infringement, at a judge or jury's discretion.

Thomas-Rasset, now 32, said she doesn't have the money to pay even that reduced judgment, and that her house in Brainerd, Minnesota is homesteaded and protected from a judgment. The mother of four said she is a "very low- to middle-income" earner who works for a local Native American tribe.

"It's not like I have a money tree in the backyard," she said during a brief telephone interview.

The RIAA said it was reviewing the decision and was not prepared to comment.

The decision, if it survives, may not have much weight in the file sharing world.

More than a year ago, the record labels announced they were winding down their nearly 6-year-old litigation campaign against individuals and instead were lobbying internet service providers to adopt a program to disconnect music file sharers.

One case in Boston still on the books concerns Joel Tenenbaum, the nation's only other individual to go to trial against the RIAA. Most of the 30,000 cases the RIAA brought against individuals were settled out of court for a few thousand dollars.

Among other things, he is urging the federal judge in his case to reduce the $675,000 July jury verdict to $22,500, the minimum of $750 for 30 tracks.

U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner, who is presiding over Tenenbaum's case, is not obligated to follow Judge Davis' decision